Coventry, Connecticut

Tolland county. The Wangombog, a beautiful pond, and the Skungamug, Hop and Willimantic rivers, give Coventry a good water power. In the south part of the town are two cotton and two woolen manufactories, a machine shop and other important mechanical operations by water. This town was the gift of Mohegan Sachem, and was first settled in 1700. The surface is uneven, and the soil is a gravelly loam.

Coventry lies 18 miles E. from Hartford, and bounded N. by Tolland. Population, 1830, 2,119. This town is celebrated as the birth place of Capt. Nathan Hale, who volunteered his services to Washington to discover the position of the enemy on Long Island. He fell a martyr to American liberty, Sept. 22, 1776, aged 22.

Lorenzo Dow, an itinerant preacher, celebrated for his eccentricity, was born in Coventry, October, 16, 1777. It is said that during the 38 years of his ministry he travelled in this and foreign countries two hundred thousand miles. He died at Georgetown, D.C., Feb. 2, 1834.